Account options for families

Many 23andMe customers participate with their family members, including parents, siblings, spouses, and more. When registering your kits, you can choose to establish separate accounts for each individual or place all family members in one account. There are a few aspects to consider when choosing which type of account to set up.

Separate Accounts

If you choose to create separate accounts, then each person would have their own email address and password to log in. Even if you choose to share at the extended level, you would not be sharing the following information:

Search or download the other person's raw data.

View the other person's DNA Relatives.

If applicable, reports that are not compatible with the other person’s account or older versions of reports purchased prior to November 22, 2013.

If applicable, reports that require an additional consent such as Late-onset Alzheimer’s Disease and Parkinson’s Disease.

Based upon how much information you wish to share and how frequently each person will be logging in, you can choose the method which will work best for you.

Shared Account

Only one person can be logged into the shared account at any given time.

Access to all of each person's genetic data would be available to everyone who shares the account.

Each person will have a unique profile and each profile would have its own unique set of surveys.

Registration

To register a kit into an existing account, click here and sign in to enter your account credentials (email address and password).

After entering the kit barcode, you will be prompted to select whether you or someone else will be using the kit in question. In most instances, the individual registering should select "I will be using this kit." You should only select the other option if you will be registering on behalf of someone else, such as a child under 13 who cannot have his or her own account.

Navigation

Once you have registered profiles into a shared account, you will be able to navigate between profiles by selecting the profile name in the upper right corner and then clicking the desired profile from the list. Note that for accounts with more than 3 profiles, you will first need to select Switch Profiles from the dropdown menu.

Sharing

When extending or accepting a sharing invitation when you have multiple profiles in your account, you will be asked to choose which profiles you wish to share with another user. Whether you choose to share one or more of the profiles in your account, you will be able to view the established sharing connection from any profile in your account. As an example, if you decide to share only your profile with another 23andMe user, the connection will appear as an option in the Share and Compare feature for all profiles in your account — not just the profile that shared back with that person.

Because of this functionality, accounts with multiple profiles may see sharing connections in the Share and Compare feature that do not share segments of DNA with each profile in the account.